For quite some time, Rivers State has been embroiled in an intractable political crisis that has threatened the very fibre and soul of the state. The raison d’etre of the entire problem can be traced to the authenticity and legitimacy of the House of Assembly loyal to Rt. Hon. Martins Amaewhule.
The state governor, Amaopusenibo Siminalayi Fubara has sounded it loud and clear that he would never recognize the lawmakers loyal to Martins Amaewhule ostensibly on the grounds that they had defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC). In his reasoning and that of a wide spectrum of Rivers people, having defected from the party that sponsored them to the House of Assembly, automatically, they have lost their seats.
However, it remains to be seen how the final arbiter, the Supreme Court of Nigeria will interpret the impetuous alleged act of defection embarked on by Amaewhule and his co-travellers. The political dog fight in the state has reached such a deafening crescendo such that even the ordinary man in the state is with bated breath eagerly awaiting the judicial pronouncement of the Supreme Court.
To this end, it was rather embarrassing how some interest groups loyal to Amaewhule and his co-travellers went as far as convening press conferences to force the hand of the Rivers State government to recognize Rt. Hon. Martins Amaewhule as the authentic Speaker based on the state government withdrawing of one of its applications on the matters before the Supreme Court.
It is rather curious if not uncouth that Amaewhule and his supporters could not exercise the elementary courtesy of patiently waiting for the Supreme Court rulings on the flurry of Rivers State cases presently on their laps which would eventually lay to rest the protracted arguments and claims as to whether Martins Amaewhule and 26 other lawmakers are still lawmakers in the eyes of the law.
Rivers State has been at the receiving end of so much unrest and unnecessary distractions by reason of the avoidable delay in dispensing justice in a matter that has held the jugular of the state in a vice like grip. Even though the Supreme Court of Nigeria is widely regarded as infallible, we view askance the unnecessary delay in arriving at judicial pronouncements that would lay the persistent imbroglio to rest once and for all.
Another farcical tinge to the element of defection of Martins Amaewhule and 26 others is that they allegedly swore an affidavit to the effect that they are now members of the All Progressives Congress.
In what would appear as an afterthought or volte-face, they realized themselves suddenly, recanted and claimed that they never even defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
As Nigerians from all walks of life eagerly await the judicial pronouncements of the Apex Court, it is expected that their judgement would be in line with the clear provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, without minding whose ox is gored.�
